Big Sur

After all that technology, back to nature. Here’s a scenic view of Big Sur, one of California’s perennial sweet spots along Highway One.

This Is Bolinas – Please Go Away

Supposedly they don’t like strangers in Bolinas, a secluded community of hippies, surfers and artists a few miles north of the Golden Gate. According to local lore, Bolinians (if that’s the term) have a habit of taking down street signs pointing to the one road that leads into their little town of some 1,200 people.

True, it’s easy to overlook Bolinas when you’re driving along Highway 1 – but I’ve always enjoyed my stay and never felt unwelcome. The scenery is breathtaking and the road into town worth looking out for. Just don’t blink, or you’ll miss it.

Coastal Grass

No, not that kind of grass, even though this is California. Simply some weeds along Highway 1, glowing in the afternoon sun.

Morro Bay

Halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, a little south of Hearst Castle, lies Morro Bay, a quaint fishing village with an ugly power plant (not pictured) and a very photogenic harbor. Morro Rock, an ancient volcanic plug, is the town's landmark and a protected State Reserve.

Palace Under Palm Trees

 

Back in the 1920's, when newspapers still made money, a publisher who owned a few of them decided to put some spare change into building “a little something” where he used to camp out in the open, under the California sky: voilà, Hearst Castle! The man behind it, William Randolph Hearst, never called his sprawling estate near San Simeon a castle, actually, because he owned a real castle in Scotland. But that one probably didn’t come complete with Roman bath and a few other extras. Well worth a visit if you ever happen to be in the area.

Bodega Birds

Remember Alfred Hitchcock’s PBS-on-steroids lesson in ornithology, “The Birds”? Here are the winged protagonists' descendants, photographed, like the film, in Bodega Bay, about 2 hours north of San Francisco. More here.